NY May 19 Monday

 No shows today so I met Greg for lunch. Went to the BEST  restaurant: " Robert" which is in the Museum of arts and design on Columbus Circle.  Everything in this small restaurant was a work of art. Art in the room design & on the walls.  Every bite was absolutely artfully delicious. Truly ranks in the top of the list of best food. I will absolutely try to get back there every time I'm in town. We then walked over to the NY library for the performing arts.  I got a library card and because I'm directing a production of Charlie Brown I now have access to watch a recording of the Broadway show. I will, however, have to have enough time to sit down and do that. I don't think I'll have time this trip. But maybe I need to come back in a couple months?...😉

For dinner Jackie reserved a place called the green room 42  ( " at this performance ") --a cabaret type show--where the entertainers are  B'way & off B'way performers (understudies, stand-bys etc) who sang a couple songs each.  They were excellent. Many of them understudy leading roles and have been able to go on for those roles.  Really good entertainment. And dinner was tasty too. So it's a good thing to do on an evening when there's no theater.

We're getting a lot of walking in. Tomorrow is supposed to be over 90° so I'm not sure that we'll want to walk much.   Crazy temperature, considering it's May in New York. 

PS    I am bummed out that I can't access my photos. Google does weird stuff and changes things and I haven't kept up. So I have pictures to post, but it's not letting me.😢

NY May 17 Sunday

 Another double header day. 

First up was "Giant" with John Lithgow. This told a story about author Roald Dahl and the controversy about an antisemitic statement he made publicly.  Also in the cast were Aya Cash & several British actors. The show originally  played in London, with pretty much the same cast  where it received tremendous acclaim. They then brought it to New York for its first showing here.   The acting was absolutely stellar.  The story was provocative.  We all loved it. Several of the cast members and the show itself has many Tony nominations.

In the evening was the satire of the movie Titanic-- "Titanique"which used the music of Celine Dion-- basically, a jukebox musical. As I know none of her music, I did not recognize most of the music ( and I am not a fan of her).   The audience was ecstatic, and their screaming and yelling and applauding constantly was pretty irritating to me. Clearly I was not at all the target audience for this show.  The pop culture references were lost on me. The show seemed cobbled together.   I will say that the leading lady ( Marla Mindell )  who satirized Céline Dion did an excellent job. Several of the voices were excellent. The cast also included Melissa Barrera who was in the film of  "In the Heights". The set was very interesting. And for me, the most interesting thing was that Jim Parsons played Rose's mother. But overall I'm not a fan of this show. I felt similarly about the musical we saw last fall--" Queen of Versailles" and it had a short run. This one I think will make more money by far because of the appeal to a target audience. I know I'm a snob when I say that the very broad humor appealed to a less urbane audience.   

NY May 16 Saturday

 Mornings are lazy in NY since we're up so late at night. We can ease into the day. Nice. 

The 3 of us will see most shows together but a few times we go separate ways. Matinee today I went alone to see the new Rocky Horror, directed by Sam Pinkerton who directed Oh Mary previously.  Knew it would be insane & it was.  It   was theatre from the moment I entered the door.  Dark, loud music, lights strung from every place possible, & theatre-goers with fun attire-- of course fishnet stockings & gloves, some outlandish outfits and interesting makeup.  Everyone was there for the same reason: to have fun! I just had such a grin on my face for the longest time. Cast was strong including Luke Evans, Andrew Durand & Rachel Dratch as narrator ( you know from SNL). ( tho' I wasn't in thrilled with Janet) .  Audience behaved pretty well and only participated appropriately e.g."Brad asshole. Janet slut." 🤣 fun times! 

I met up with the others for dinner then the 3 of us went to Death of a Salesman with Laurie Metcalf , Nathan Lane & Christopher Abbott-- all of whom have Tony noms for their roles. So intense, so powerful..  imaginative & fascinating staging ;and  this play has held up so well. Lots of Tony possibilities here. I can't imagine seeing better dramatic  performances.( The review in The New York Times is a really interesting read).  

( I'm very tired so excuse my quick scribbles) 

NY May 15, 2025

 I arrived yesterday but just now I'm getting caught up on the blog. I made a very last-minute decision to take a very early flight yesterday morning so that I could see a show last night and I made it with about five minutes to spare.🤪 I took a 5 AM flight so I stayed at a hotel by the airport the night before but got very little sleep. I arrived at LaGuardia around 5 o'clock. Got to the hotel about 615 and was able to dump my bags and leave in time to get to the 7:00 show. But it was worth all of it!

 I met up with Jackie and we saw Schmigadoon which has swept the Tony nominations. It was over the top fantastic! I'm so happy I made the effort. There were so many references to every Broadway musical I've ever seen or done.  Some references were just a phrase of music. Sometimes it was a line Or a character being like one we knew in musicals. For example, there was a character like Billy Bigelow, in carousel. Sometimes a song would start with the same phrase of a familiar show tune like something from the music man and then the song became totally different and it was a different song, but it tricked you into thinking it was going to be a song you knew.  

I assume not everyone in the audience got all the same innuendos but certainly a sophisticated Broadway audience who loved musicals would have gotten the references. Absolutely Hysterical!  The audience was through the roof in their enthusiasm. In the cast was Ana Gasteyer ( SNL) . 

Last night I managed to sleep nearly 10 hours! So I felt quite normal today. Jackie went off to see a museum and Dianne  and I did a little shopping around Times Square. We met up with Jackie in time for dinner. The restaurant we thought we would go to ended up being closed and we didn't have time to search around so we went to Olive Garden. Actually, they had a small portion of eggplant Parmesan so I was a happy camper. Tonight Dianne and I went to a play that was a revival with new Tony nominations. It's called Becky Shaw. It was a dark comedy. The writing was hysterical. There were so many laugh out loud lines. But every character in the show was dysfunctional and they all pointed fingers at everybody else being dysfunctional, but usually did not recognize it in themselves. It was quite amusing, and I was shocked when it was intermission because it just seemed like 15 minutes to me. Same thing with the conclusion-- It was over too fast. The cast included Andrew Ball ( the Pitt) who was excellent.  

Tomorrow will be the first doubleheader.  We're off to a wonderful start!

😎

NY in May 2026

 Heading to NYC for 11 B'way shows!  May 14-22.

Thursday --Schmigadoon

Friday -- Becky Shaw

Saturday --Rocky horror  & Death of a salesman

Sunday --Giant &  Titanique

Monday   --the Green Room ( cabaret)

Tuesday  --Operation mincemeat

Wednesday  --Chess  & Proof

Thursday  --Spelling  bee & Every brilliant thing

Oct 26 NYC

 Our last day in the big apple. It's been a wonderful week. Our last Broadway show was the matinee of "just in time" with Jonathan Groff portraying and paying tribute to Bobby Darin. He was over the top fantastic.Not a play, but rather a series of songs with explanation of events in his life. Also, in the cast was Sarah Hyland who was on Modern Family. She has done more theatre than I had realized before. The venue was super-- the theatre in the square. We were sitting at the far end, right next to the stage. But it was a three-quarter audience.. this is such a super conclusion to a super week!

In the evening we saw a show with John Oliver & Seth Myers. There are 2500 seats in the Beacon theater and it was sold out!  They actually have added more nights because of the sellouts. Talk about a timely show. We expected it to be more of a conversation, but actually each of them just had a good long set of stand-up. They certainly made a few political comments, but it was a little different from what we expected. However They both were outstanding.

Sigh... The end of a really fun week.

( I still do not know why I am unable to post pictures. I have some fun pictures, but obviously they will have to wait.)

Oct 25 NY

 I started out the day with my back in spasm so fortunately, we didn't have anything scheduled until the afternoon show. Meds helped. 

 We had lunch in the hotel and then went to see a new show called Queen of Versailles, the story of Jackie Siegel, and the replica of Versailles  that she wanted built in Florida as their home. Kristin Chenoweth in the leading role. Our reaction overall was " meh."  Not bad... just not something to write home about. She was excellent though. Not sure how long this show will last. 

Next we had dinner at a French restaurant :Marseilles.  High quality food.  I had onion soup  --yum. 

Tonight's show was Buena Vista Social Club --about music in Cuba.  I loved the music.  The performers were super. I had high expectations of this show, and I was not disappointed.

Hard to believe just 1 more day here!  It's been an excellent week.  Theatre immersion therapy!